Gytrash

The tradition & historical record

The Gytrash was a legendary shape-changer known in parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was said to haunt lonely roads awaiting travelers. Appearing usually in the shape of animals (horses, mules, and dogs among others), the Gytrash haunt solitary ways and lead people astray, but they can also be benevolent, guiding lost travelers to the right road. They are usually feared. The Gytrash is a shapechanging cousin of the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Shagfoal, of the Lancashire Skriker, of the Padfoot, also from the West Riding and of Barguest of much of the North Riding, Cumberland, Lincolnshire, County Durham and Northumberland. The most important gytrash references appear in the writings of the Brontës. ¹

As this horse approached, and as I watched for it to appear through the dusk, I remembered certain of Bessie's tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit called a "Gytrash," which, in the form of horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travelers, as this horse was now coming upon me. It was very near, but not yet in sight; when, in addition to the tramp, tramp, I heard a rush under the hedge, and close down by the hazel stems glided a great dog, whose black and white colour made him a distinct object against the trees. It was exactly one form of Bessie's Gytrash -- a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head [...], with strange pretercanine eyes [...]. The horse followed, -- a tall steed [...]. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Gytrash”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Gytrash is legendary English ghost-animal, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²